Latest Fieldnotes

The Santa Cristina complex is right longside the SS131, just south of Paulilitino. Entry costs 5 euros for adults, and there’s a cafe and bar, and souvenirs on sale, clean toilets and ample parking.

It’s open from 08:30 to 22:30 (or 21:00 in the winter).

There are 3 main elements:

The centre is a Christian village, with families living in the long low buildings and a quaint church on the village square.

The most important elements though, are the holy well to the north, and the nuraghic village to the south.

There are two menhirs alongside the path to the village, and an impressive hut at a short distance from the main part of the village which is grouped around the base of the nuraghe. One of the huts here is a massive 14m long, and its interior shows the same construction style as a tomba di gigante.

This tomba is situated just to the north of a walled enclosure for farm buildings, almost opposite Nuraghe Oppianu. The track towards the enclosure was gated and padlocked, and the undergrowth looked substantial, so knowing from our research notes that the site has yet to be excavated and the stele is missing, and that it would be difficult to see, we left this one for another time.

Had a  few searches in the past but no rock art was forthcoming in Glen Lednock despite it being a likely area but found three “new ” marked rocks a couple of weeks ago . This is the funniest , a bit of simulacra although I doubt if it was intentional . The rocks are within a mile of the “stone circle ” stone setting may be more appropriate as one certailny looks like it was erected with a few lying around in a shape even Thom couldn’t describe .

From Borore, head towards the SS131. At the big junction and flyover, take the first left, signposted to Flor Mirko (nursery / garden centre) and head south on the old main road.

The tomba is signposted from this road and its turn is directly opposite Flor Mirko – as you turn, there’s a farmyard infront, and the track you want goes to the left.

We drove cautiously on for about 300m, and then spotted the stele in the corner of a field on a S bend ahead. There’s a track to pull into / turn round in just before the first corner, and a similar space opposite the second.

And what a stele! Broken vertically. Has it been intact, it would probably be among the largest on the island. It’s 3.8m high, and the remaining part is 1.9m wide – originally about 4m wide.

The tomba is right up against the field/road boundary, and the left hand side of the esedra is almost non-existant because of this.

The body of the tomba runs parallel to the boundary and there are 9 of the original 12 side stones still in place, half buried in the long grass, forming a corridor 8.8m x 1.2m.

As we visited, the local farmer appeared to clear the field of sheep and gave us a friendly wave.

Imbertighe tomba di gigante has an impressive curved esedra made of small blocks, and a relief carved stele standing 3.6m high.

The body of the tomb was originally 11.5m long, but there’s very little to see of it on site. The info board says it’s been destroyed; my research notes say it’s still buried.

In a farmyard only metres east of Imbertighe tomba.

Just to the east of Borore, on the road which takes you to Santu Bainzu and Nuraghe Toscono is Nuraghe Bighinzones.

It’s a quadrilobate structure, similar to Nuraghe Porcarzos but with symmetrically arranged side towers ... not that you can tell, as it’s buried to beyond the height of the side towers and only the central one is visible. Climbing to the top, you can look down through the collapsed tholos roof to the interior of the tower, and some of the entrances to the side chambers can be seen.

I set a reminder in my phone to check out this cairn at sunset around Bealtaine as Martin Brennan suggested it has an early May alignment. Well, I since switched phones so it was only while looking for a drawing of something else (the stone at Killin in Co. Louth, which he seems to have confused with Carrickrobin) that it hit me. As luck would have it, the weather then wasn’t great but tonight it was perfect.

The sunset does indeed stream down the left hand side of the passage (as looking out) and forms a rectangle of light on right side of the backstone which slowly decreases in size as the sun reaches the horizon. It may have even entered the now-destroyed right hand chamber before dipping below the horizon.

This is a large quite impressive barrow around 45m in diameter and around 2m in height, with maybe traces of a wide ditch.
Just off the A515, although not visible from it, access is by way of one of two paths close to Boars Low, one being to the north and another to the east.

Bateman dug here in the 1840’s finding Bronze Age flints and pottery sherds.

Approaching this nuraghe from the road, there’s a path with drystone walls on both sides – and the view doesn’t inspire. But as I approached, I could make out some impressive walls and a path round what we worked out is the back of the nuraghe. Round the front, it becomes clearer – a long walled approach and then access to the main chamber from the first floor level only, with two side towers both with collapsed tholos roofs. The actual entrance was propped with scaffolding poles so we decided to err on the side of caution and not enter, instead climbing up to the highest point – using a flight of steps above the left hand side collapse – and peering down into the chambers.

The nuraghe has 4 side towers, sited asymetrically, though we were unable to access the rear two. Despite another scaff pole being visible through the floor of the right side tower, I climbed down – it’s at second floor level – to admire the flights of stairs up the the roof, and a double set leading back down to the forecourt of the main chamber.

About half way between the church and the road junction is a gate giving easy access to the nuraghe, through a field of tall grasses and flowers, with the occasional thistle.

The entrance to this simple monotower nuraghe faces the road – I climbed up and in, noticing a collapsed roof (or possibly the original entrance on further reading) to the left. To the right, and much lower down, there was another shaft of light but with a black void between it and me. Cursing the lack of foresight to pack a torch, I felt my way carefully down the uneven ‘staircase’ to an anti-chamber which opened onto the main chamber with 3 side chambers and a collapsed tholos roof.

The tomba of Santu Bainzu has an impressive stele, or central stone, standing 3.2 metres tall and just over 2m wide. It’s relief carved, as we’d seen at Coddu Vecchju and Li Lolghi, but this time with the addition of a large cupmark above the portal (the portal being approx 30cm tall by 50cm wide).

Not much remains of the esedra, and the low lying stones were partically hidden in the long grass and wild flowers.

The funerary space can be clearly identified at the rear of the stele; of the cist, about 6m x 1m remains, though the origial construction is thought to have been almost 14m long.

This site is on a hill to the north of the village of Winterbourne Abbas. I saw`and photographed 2 bowl barrows, M.A.G.I.C. shows another bowl and a long barrow neither of which I could see. The long barrow was disputed by L.V.Grinsell when he visited the site, he thought it was twin bowl barrows whose definition had been reduced by ploughing. I wasn’t looking for this today and it may well still exist, I’ll have another look soon.
Both the bowl barrows appeared in reasonable condition and were to the west of the public footpath.

A solution to the long walk is too drive up the little lane up to the church ( there’s a small parking area for the church so park thoughtfully) then walk along up the farm track beneath the hill it rises though. keep on it till the fort appears on the right about a half a mile away. There is a house platform to the left, but little can be seen.

Liddington Warren Farm Long Barrow – May 11th 2008

This long barrow sits on top of a ridge over looking the B4192 from Liddington to Aldbourne.
The road shows the precision of a Roman hand and I get the impression that this was the territory prized for it’s fertility. This whole area of the Ridgeway was rich agricultural land long before any Roman marched here.
The Aldbourne Circular Route, a bridleway/ride, follows the ridge and runs next to the barrow.
The way this route follows the top of this ridge, from the old Ridgeway at Liddington Castle down to the Aldbourne Four Barrows and on into the church at Aldbourne, is very processional. This whole area must had been the height of pre-roman achievement. Once the Romans came, it would had mushroomed into a major agricultural complex.

To visit this Barrow, I would suggest you park at SU 21822 80419, where the other cars pull up when visiting Liddington Castle, at the top of the hill. The traffic is slower here and you can see what’s coming. This road is an accident black spot, as the signs proclaim. If you park here, there is a stile leading into the field and a straight track directly up to the barrow. If you want to get nearer, park at SU 22035 80044 and get under the wire. The road past this point is tree lined with Horse Chestnut trees and can get very dark. It is very wide too, with well dug side ditches and numerous pieces of sarsen half buried. I could imagine it being a drover’s road, long before any car thundered along it.
It would have been the main road out to Cirencester, the second largest city in Roman Britian.

Walking up to the barrow you can see the fence line cutting the Eastern flank. This fence is the border. The parish was marked out on known landmarks and you don’t get much older a Neolithic Long Barrow. The barrow has been mutilated by man and beast. The black and whites are resident here and they have made quite a mess. When the fence was erected in 1890, three skeletons were dug from the barrow with a fourth, that of an adult male, was found later. The bones of at least one of these were forwarded to St Thomas’s Hospital. All are now lost.

The barrow mound is ovoid in plan and orientated WNW-ESE.. It survives to 42m in length, is 30m wide and stands 1.5m high. Although no longer visible at ground level, flanking ditches, from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument, run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound. These have become in filled over the years but survive as buried features 3m wide.

The barrow was first recorded by A.D. Passmore in 1922, who recorded a mound 165 feet long, 42 feet wide and up to 5 feet high, oriented SE-NW. Any sign of the side-ditches had been obliterated by ploughing. L.V. Grinsell was quoted as believing twelve sarsens protruding from the mound, although I could only see two. As it has never been properly excavated, these may be in situ from the original burial chamber. The hollow in the central area of the barrow mound represents only partial excavation by antiquarians, probably in the 19th century.

There might not be a lot to see at this barrow, but it does date from the same period of the ancient Ridgeway. It survived for 5000 years, but has only fallen into a ruin in the last 100 years.

Standing prominently on a hill overlooking the main road (obviously new, as it didn’t exist on our map) from Macomer to the resort of Bosa, south of the village of Sindia.

We parked up and fought our way through the hip high grass, thistles and brambles, over stone walls, and ended up in a field still a way away, with no obvious access route, so had to be content with viewing from a distance. There were quite a few (sheep, I suspect) skulls and other bones in the field, and we spent quite a time watching the wildlife, including a dung beetle with a sphere much larger than it was, both of us contemplating picking up a souvenir or two for a certain friend .....

Visible from, and signposted from, the fast SS131 that runs vertically down the island. However only accessible when going north – the road bends quite sharply around Macomer and then heads west and uphill – watch out for the sign to the right.

We always seemed to be on the wrong side of the road, or heading home late after a full day, so never did stop to investigate.

Margaret Guido, in “Sardinia: Ancient Peoples and Places” describes the site as “an early tower, with niches, guard-chamber and staircase has a four-towered addition each of whose towers contains a tholos chamber”. It’s one of her recommended places to visit.

1.2m high standing stone near a lime kiln and an the outline of a rectangular shaped building so you would wonder about its date.

Not a lot to see here, looks to me as if the cairn that was up here was robbed to build a wall.
The Carraigapuckaun of the area name seems to be a big rock where a group from Kilfinnane outdoor adventure were learning how to absail.

This is also in the vicinity and much easier to see from the road. It looks like a worked stone of some sort or the other. There is some metal drilled into the top of it and the top is pyramid shaped. I happen to meet the farmer that owns the field and he told me that there was a mound around it and that as far as he knew it was very old. He also did a lot of contract work in the fields around Dromline and can never recall seeing a standing stone there that looked like the picture I have of it. However he did recall there being a standing stone in Dromline in Kavanaghs farm.

I was on the trail of Roth Ramach a standing stone that was meant to have been part of the druid Mogh Ruiths Flying Wheel in the townland of Dromline which is very near here. No sign of Roth Ramach but I did find this unmarked standing stone about 0.5m high with some quartz in the head of it. I met the farmer nearby and he did a lot of contract work in the fields around Dromline and can never recall seeing a standing stone there that looked like the picture I have of it. However he did recall there been a standing stone in Dromline in Kavanaghs farm.

According to Mountainviews Knockshanahullion means ‘hill of the old holly’ or ‘hill of the old steep slope’.
Thankfully its an easy climb compared to Temple Hill. Knockshanahullion is readily reached the road at R 983 089. Incidentally, this road at 450m is easily the highest of the passes across the Knockmealdowns. Follow the Avondhu Way until you come to Knockclugga.
The cairn itself has really been tampered with a number of shelters in it now. Its bigger than the cairn on Temple Hill. It cant be seen from directly below but only from a few miles either side. To the south you can see out to sea.
The cairn is maybe 4m high with a diameter of 20-30m. I think with the amount of digging into the cairns middle it is unlikely that it could still contain a passage.

Mountainviews.ie records the name Temple Hill as meaning ‘hill of the church’.
Ive passed by this mountain so many times and wondered about the size of the cairn.
It is big but not as huge as I hoped. The cairn itself has been dug out in the middle to form a shelter. Normally you would be pretty pissed off with that but believe me you really need as much shelter as you can get up here. I climbed up on a nice warm calm day down at ground level but by the time I got to 785m some serious winds had whipped up. Going up here on any kind of windy day would be very dangerous so if anyone is thinking of heading up be careful.
Could the cairn conceal a passage tomb? I dont know really, there is a slight depression on the eastern side of the tomb nothing major really. The middle of the tomb is pretty robbed out but I would still think there would be sufficient depth below it to conceal a passage.
The cairn itself must be 3-5m high, diameter 20m?. Not sure really it was hard to tell with the wind, the western side seems to be very close to what looked like a drop so I didnt venture to close.
To get up there will take about 3-4hr round trip depending where you take off from and really there is no easy way up.
I drove up to a farmyard at R857203 and followed the Pigeonbrook River for about 0.5km and then decided to climb up via a dried out stream bed climbing about 300m in height. Then I just plodded along up the 2km at a fairly ok pace. Coming back down I followed the Pigeonrock river but beware because it is a V shaped valley and pretty hazardous.

I have concentrated on the barrows on this site of which there are said to be eleven. I managed to find and photograph only two of them on this visit. This is a large site with at least two other sets of earthworks on it one of which is said to be of iron age origin.
Sited above and overlooking Christchurch, Hengistbury head can be see to the south east. I will be adding the earthworks and other barrows in the near future as I will visit again soon.

This is a low bowl barrow on the western half of the heath. It is next to the road which passes north of the heath. The barrow is not in very good condition, it was excavated in the early 1940’s. Its survival is lucky as some barrows were lost during the construction of a second world war airfield.